


is that why you're here

by tall_wolf_of_tarth



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Museums, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Snow and Ice, Swimming, Tapestries, Tarth, There is no plot, chainmail knickers, knitting shops, ok there is a little plot, some scenes connected to each other with a feeble of attempt of plot, winter swimming
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:00:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26558533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tall_wolf_of_tarth/pseuds/tall_wolf_of_tarth
Summary: Jaime and Brienne connect during the modern long winter.(originally posted to collection)
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Comments: 113
Kudos: 217





	1. is that why you're here

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted to my Odds and Ends collection but I've got at least two more chapters of this so I decided to post this as a separate work. 
> 
> Be warned, there is not much plot, just feelings.

Brienne knocks on his door so lightly that she probably shouldn't even bother. It's the middle of the night and Jaime is most likely already asleep, so she turns away from the door to go back to her own room. She can only take a step before the door opens behind her.

“Tarth?” she hears Jaime and she freezes. “What's wrong?”

Jaime looks sleepy and ruffled, in low-slung pyjama pants and tight shirt. Brienne swallows. This was a bad idea. The worst idea.

“Nothing,” she whispers and turns around again to leave but suddenly Jaime is next to her. He grabs her arm and stops her.

“What's wrong?” he asks again in a lower voice. Brienne can smell his aftershave and she closes her eyes for a moment.

“I couldn't sleep,” she whispers. His body next to him wires up. His hand -- the one in the cast-- snakes to Brienne's waist and he pulls her nearer.

“You couldn't sleep?” Jaime's breath is hot against her ear. “So you came to me?”

“Yes,” Brienne whispers and feels very stupid. “You said...” She stops herself and tries to pull away from him. It was stupid to come to his door, he had made a joke at that time, he didn't mean it.

But Jaime doesn't let go of her. Instead, he moves his hand up her side, until it stops just below her breast.

Brienne opens her eyes and looks at him. His eyes are dark in the low light. "Tell me."

“You said,” she whispers and looks down at her hand on his shoulder, “that to get a good night's sleep I need a good fuck first. And then you said you can help me with that if I want to.”

The world stands still around them. The only sound is Jaime's ragged breath and her own thundering heartbeat.

“Is that why you're here, Brienne?”

She moves her hand down to his chest and feels his heart beating against her palm.

This is Jaime, she thinks. She used to hate him, but then they almost died together and now she doesn't remember what it felt like to not miss him constantly.

Brienne can't sleep because Jaime is not there with her. If she closes her eyes images of the past start dancing inside her eyelids and she has to stand up and pace her room again.

This is Jaime. Golden and beautiful and cruel. Jaime, who came back to her through the snow and ash, looking like a half-god and half corpse. Jaime, who seeks out her eyes across the lecture halls and ignores her when they sit next to each other in the common room.

“Hey,” he nudges her with his nose. “Is that why you're here? To get a good fuck?”

She draws breath and looks up to his eyes again. “Yes."

“Good.” He pulls her to his room.


	2. I told you not to knock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaime always wakes up alone.

Brienne is always gone when he wakes up. No matter how far under the bed Jaime kicks her clothes or how tightly he wraps himself around her before falling asleep, the bed beside him is always empty in the morning. Only the smell of her shampoo on his pillow is there to remind him she was there.

She doesn't come to him every night. Jaime suspects she leaves deliberate and carefully randomized gaps in their nightly visits. But every night he still hopes to hear the hesitant, quiet knock on his door.

“You don't need to knock. The door is unlocked, just come in,” he told her once but she shook her head. She always knocks and always waits until he opens the door for her to pull her in.

“I told you not to knock,” he grumbles.

“You might have company,” she says quietly and her cheekbones stain with red blotches.

“Like who?” His hands are already roaming her, pulling off her frayed sweater, searching for the bare skin under her pyjama bottoms. “You are the only one I let in here.”

It's the truth, but he knows that she doesn't believe her. He suspects it's because she walked in on him and Pia once at Pia's room, but that was ages ago.

Before.

They tumble to his bed, and Brienne carefully puts away her clothes to the chair. Smart girl, Jaime chuckles. Once he managed to hide her pants behind his dirty clothes hamper and she left with wearing his sweats, he suspects as he didn't find them in the morning. He found his pants later, hanging from his doorknob outside his room when he left to class, but Jaime took great pleasure wearing Brienne's team sweats to the classes until she stole them back next night.

But they are now naked, which is the best way to be with Brienne and soon she is pink and panting and pliable under him. He loves and hates how she moans his name to his ear, hates that she keeps quiet so they wouldn't be heard through the paper-thin walls of the dorms, loves how she wails against his skin when she comes apart.

She holds him close when he is nearing his, her calloused hands on his skin so gentle and her blue eyes half hooded. “Fuck,” he curses when he comes, his release washing over him like a wave in a stormy sea.

On the nights Brienne doesn't come to his bed when he takes himself to his hand he always comes with her name on his lips. When she is there with him in the bed, around him, he chokes it back, cursing instead. _Brienne_ , he thinks instead when he pulls out of her and collapses next to her.

“Was it good?” he demands from her, “did you like it?” -- he is always so needy. They move around the bed, limbs shifting and finding comfortable positions for sleep. “Yes,” she sighs, “'twas good,” she's already falling to sleep. “Don't let it get into your head,” she adds and snuggles against his front while he laughs quietly to her shoulder in the darkness. He wraps his arm around her waist and laces his fingers around hers to hold her hand while she sleeps.

Whenever Jaime masturbates, he always fantasizes about fucking her somewhere else, in someplace where they don't need to be quiet. A wide bed, sunlight pouring out from the window to her creamy skin and Brienne crying out loud when she comes. Right now, Jaime closes his eyes and listens Brienne's breath slowing as she falls asleep. It would be somewhere warm, he thinks about this imaginary room. A cabin at Summer Isles maybe. There would be sunshine, and the sea would be just outside the room.

It would be nothing like that ski lodge.

Brienne whimpers in her sleep and Jaime lets go of her hand. He must have squeezed it too hard.

“Shh,” he tries to soothe her, but she turns around in bed.

“Jaime,” she sounds so young now, “get up, Jaime,” she whimpers. She gets nightmares, he has learnt, but she quiets when he wraps his arms around her and pets her back.

“Shh, you're alright,” he whispers, “we're alright.” She quiets down and slumps against him again. He puts his hand over hers and stares at the ceiling. The semester will end soon, and they will leave their separate ways for the annual leave. Jaime will go to Casterly, where the winter storms will roar and the waves beat against the castle walls. It's the fourth year of the Long Winter and Jaime misses the summer and the warmth.

He closes his eyes again and thinks about the room with open windows to the sea. Just outside the door would be the beach where they could lay on the towels after swimming. He thinks about white sand sticking to freckled skin and the smell of the sunscreen. Brienne had worn sunscreen on her face even when skiing at Vale, and he had laughed at her stupidly large bottle of SPF95. In Summer Isles, she would have to cover herself in that stuff from head to toes.

They would wake up in the morning, and he would rub the sunscreen to her skin. He would kiss her in an overly large bed and Brienne would not hold back and neither would he.

Jaime drifts off to sleep, and when he wakes up Brienne is gone again from his bed.


	3. can you come over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaime asks for things.

Brienne rubs her eyes and tries to concentrate on words on the page when a backpack lands on the table and Jaime slumps to the chair next to her. She is not sure how Jaime has sussed out where in the library she likes to sit and study, but he seeks her out from time to time to work next to her. He is pretty good study partner, except when he gets bored and starts to mess with her, but now Jaime doesn't take out his laptop or books, or not even his cell phone to send memes to her, just sits sullenly, hands stuffed deep into his coat pocket.

“What's wrong?” Brienne sighs and puts away her pencil. She is not going to get anything done when he wallows so loudly.

“Nothing,” Jaime pouts and kicks the desk leg. “My therapist is a dick,” he adds when Brienne lifts her eyebrow.

“Did he give you homework again?” Jaime doesn't answer but stares out of the window. There is nothing to see outside, as its snowing like usual. Big fat snowflakes fall down from the sky and you can't see even the trees outside the library, but Jaime stares it like the snow offends him. Brienne sighs and picks up her pen again. She has too much work to do to play games with him. Jaime, who sometimes has a maturity level of a preschooler, leans forward, picks the pen out of her hands and puts it in his pocket. Brienne refrains from rolling her eyes.

“You haven't been over,” he grumbles. Brienne sighs. She hasn't. Is that's why he is so cranky?

“It's crunch time, and I've been pulling all-nighters. I went to bed at four last two nights.”

“You could still come over. I wouldn't care if it's middle of the night or the morning.”

“Alright,” Brienne knows that she is not going to go bang on his door at four am.

Jaime pouts some more, and shifts around in his chair. Takes his hands out from the pockets and puts them on the table, then puts them in the pocket again. He is clearly struggling with something, and Brienne bites her lip not to hurry him. He leans forward again and looks around. There is only Dacey Mormont sitting a few tables away and wearing a headset anyway.

He finally blurts something.

“Can you come over tonight?”

He has never asked her to come over before. They haven't really talked about their arrangement and the only reference to their activities in Jaime's rooms has been him smirking at her across the common room and occasional dirty talk he has whispered to her ear somewhere inappropriate. _I want to fuck you with my tongue,_ he had whispered to her in the cafeteria queue once and Brienne's face had gone so hot that she probably was redder than a fire truck. But Jaime has never asked her to come over.

“Forget it,” he grumbles and starts to stand up, as he apparently has a patience of a hungry kitten.

“Jaime,” Brienne puts her hand on his arm and pulls him down again. “Did something happen?”

He rubs his face with his hand.

“I just had a really shitty day.”

“I would come, but...” she feels her face going red and Jaime starts looking pissy again. Brienne groans. “It's just that I have my period,” she whispers.

She expects him to laugh at her or quip something stupid, but he just looks relieved.

“I don't care about that. Just come over.” He leans closer to her and lowers his voice. “We don't have to fuck or anything. We can just study together or watch something. And sleep.”

That had happened once before, her going to his room and ending up just sleeping in his bed, but it had been an accident. When Brienne had come over Jaime had been finishing an essay. His hair was up in a lopsided bun, tied with a hair-tie that had been probably nicked from Brienne. “Give me ten minutes,” he had said and Brienne had stretched on his bed and promptly fallen asleep to the sound of his typing. When she had woken up, Jaime had been sleeping next to her in his day clothes, his hand clutching her gansey.

“Brienne,” he says quietly now, and the look on his face is intense. “I'd like you to come over.”

“Alright,” she agrees and his smile is as bright as the sun at the summer. “Give me twenty minutes to finish this chapter first, ok?”

He gives back her pencil without a fight.

They end up watching a film on his laptop, laying side by side on his bed. Jaime is wearing a pair of woollen socks he has stolen from Brienne and keeps nudging her feet with his own.

“Ask me what homework my therapist gave me,” he commands her when he gets bored with the movie.

“What homework did your therapist gave you, Jaime?” Brienne sighs and pauses the video. He looks pensive and moody again.

“He said I need to ask for things.”

“What kind of things?” Jaime has gone to therapy ever since the incident at the Vale, and he hates it. He particularly hates the homework he gets from there.

“He said that if I want something from someone then I need to ask for it. And not just expect the other person just to know.” Jaime doesn't look at Brienne when he says that and fidgets with the laptop instead. Closes the lid, opens it a little and closes it again. Brienne fights back her urge to pull his hand away from the laptop.

She hadn't ever thought that it's hard for Jaime to ask things. He confident and cocky, and words come out of his mouth without a stumble. But she doesn't remember Jaime ever asking anything from her. He jokes about things but never asks.

Brienne never asks anything either, mainly because she never gets what she wants.

“Do you want to ask something from me?” she looks at him.

“Yes.” He starts to fidget with the laptop lid again.

“Jaime, just ask.”

He pushes away the laptop and looks at her.

“I want to have breakfast with you tomorrow. In that cafe you like.”

That doesn't sound so bad. They can have breakfast together. Brienne starts thinking about the logistics of leaving the room. Maybe she can meet him outside and they can walk to the cafe together. That wouldn't be weird even if someone would see. But before she can say yes, Jaime continues.

“And I want to kiss you. In the common room, where everyone can see us.”

Oh.

Brienne's brain freezes for a moment. Her first reaction is to suspect that there is a bet, or it's some sort of stupid dare, but Jaime looks so serious and almost upset.

_Oh._

She puts her hands on her burning cheeks. “You want to kiss me in the common room?” Her voice comes out weirdly high. Jaime looks amused.

“Yes. And in the cafe, and in the library.”

“Where everyone can see us?”

They haven't been out in public together. Well, they do hang out in the dorm common room, and sometimes they go to eat together, and last week Pia asked Brienne if she is dating Jaime, so she is pretty sure that at least some people suspect that there is something going on between them. But kissing in front of the others. Everyone is so gossipy at the dorms. And Brienne hasn't kissed anyone like that before, in public. She feels her face heating up again.

“You don't have to say yes, I won't get upset.” But he is already upset, he has been moody and pensive all day. Is he upset, because he thinks _Brienne_ doesn't want others to know that they are... Whatever they are. The thought is absurd. Surely it's the other way around.

“Can I think about it first?” she tries to buy time.

Jaime groans, hides the laptop under the bed and slides himself down until his face is in level with Brienne's stomach. He snakes his hand under Brienne's gansey and t-shirt and hides his face to her side. When he starts talking his voice comes out all muffled.

“I want to do all the stupid shit with you. Relationship shit. Like, take you out, even if it's crunch time and we're too busy to date properly. And I want to study together so you can scold me when I distract you too much.”

“We already study together,” Brienne smiles. Jaime starts rubbing circles on her belly where she is swollen and sore. He burrows further into Brienne's side and continues his tirade.

“Yes, but I want to distract you with other things besides messing with your things. I want to make out with you in the library so that that stupid bearded guy who always eats yoghurt will stop ogling you.”

“Tormund?”

“Yeah, fucking Tormund.” Brienne is not sure that making out with Jaime in the library will stop Tormund ogling her, but it might be worth a shot. She pushes her fingers to Jaime's soft golden hair and this time his groan comes out more like a purr. “And I want to see you during the break.”

It's three weeks until the mid-year break, and Brienne's stomach lurches at the thought that she might not have to go without seeing him for all the holidays.

“I'll be at Tarth. I promised to help my uncle at his store...”

“Then I'll come to Tarth. I want to see Tarth.”

Brienne can't see his face, but she is sure that he is pouting, even when his face is buried in the bedding.

“Just how many things your therapist told you to ask for?”

“Just three. So will you?”

“Will I what, Jaime? And can you please come out? I can't talk with you when you are hiding like that.” He unburrows himself and comes back up to her to sit next to her. He looks adorably ruffled.

“Will you have breakfast with me tomorrow in that cafe you like?”

“Of course, Jaime.”

He leans over and kisses her cheek. “We'll have to go together, in the morning. And you can't sneak out before that.”

“Fine,” Brienne agrees and sighs. The semester is almost over anyway, whatever storm they will cause by going public will be over after the holidays. “I think some people already know about us. Gilly surely knows that I don't sleep in my bed and Dacey Mormont saw me sneaking out from here one morning.” Jaime's smile is bright again.

“What did Dacey say?”

“She didn't say anything,” Brienne snorts. “She just gave me a high five.”

Jaime laughs and then surges up to kiss her. They tumble around the bed, just kissing and laughing until Jaime sits up again and tries to look serious.

“And will you let me kiss you in the common room, where everyone can see us?”

Brienne bites her lip.

“You do realise that Taena Merryweather will call your sister and report about it immediately?” Jaime winces at the mention of his sister but looks resolute right after.

“I don't give a shit about what my sister thinks.”

Brienne thinks a little. “Do you really want to come to Tarth to see me during the holidays?”

“Yes, and I _will_ come unless you'll tell me I can't.”

“It will be boring. There's nothing to do there in the winter and I'll be working most of the days.”

He just shakes his head and grins. “I'll come and help you in the store.”

“Jaime, you don't even know what we sell in the store.” Brienne is sure that the Uncle Endrews knitting club for gay men will love Jaime hanging out in the yarn store. “Alright then.”

Jaime grabs her waist and pulls her down to the bed again and Brienne squeaks and laughs when he tickles her side. She has to wrestle him and pin his hands above his head to make him stop. He looks way too gleeful about the way she holds him, so Brienne lets go and lay down to the bed.

“We can have breakfast tomorrow in that cafe I like, and then we can come and study in the common room, but you can't distract me too much because I really need to finish that essay. When I've finished it you can kiss me in the common room. Where everyone can see us.”

So he does.


	4. The black sheep.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uncle Endrew's knitting shop is called The Black Sheep.

When Jaime disembarks from the ferry, he is miserable, cold, slightly drunk and extremely nauseous.

He checks the map again from his phone - 3% battery remaining - and starts walking towards Evenfall castle.

Tarth town that is surrounding it is built out of granite, the white marble covering only the castle and the keep. Jaime walks down the winding streets dusted with the snow, passes the centuries-old stone houses until they change into centuries-old wooden houses and finds the knitting shop on the corner of a wide street paved with cobblestones.

The warmth of the store is a relief after his horrid journey. Brienne -- because she is right there -- Brienne is standing there behind the till, ringing up something to a customer and she is just like she has always been, tall and pale and Jaime has never been so glad to see anyone in his wretched life.

“Jaime,” her cheeks go this rosy pink shade he loves so much and then she comes over and Jaime's throat goes dry. “I didn't know you'd come, why didn't you call?” and then she is hugging him and Jaime pushes his face to her neck and breathes her in.

There are other people in the store, Jaime gets introduced to a tall, blonde man who is Brienne's uncle Endrew, there is an elderly lady called Ari, and then Jaime is guided through the rooms full wool and yarn to a small room at the back. Brienne deposits him on the sofa between colourful pillows and large crocheted toys.

He must look cold because a cup of tea is brought to his hands -- “was the crossing very miserable? The sea has been so rough lately” -- it was miserable. He sat on his arse at the bar all three hours and drunk brandy like a kindly waitress recommended him. The strategy probably did help because unlike some fellow passengers Jaime did not have to run to the bathroom to hurl, but he even onshore he still feels nauseous. The tea helps, and so does Brienne sitting next to him.

“Are you happy that I came?” why must Jaime always be so clingy, but Brienne doesn't seem to care.

“Of course I am, Jaime,” she holds his face and kisses gently his lips.

“I didn't book a place to stay,” he still doesn't dare to look at her.

“It's alright, you can stay with me.” He wraps himself around Brienne again. He has missed her so much.

“I travelled all night,” he murmurs against his girlfriend's neck. He wants to tell her about the fight he had with his father, about the night train and the cold waiting room he spent hours waiting the first ferry to arrive.

More people come to the room, Brienne leaves to bring tea and cookies to the long table and Endrew starts teaching a class about mending. No one minds Jaime being there, -- he had a bad crossing, Endrew explains-- the students all nod gravely and start talking about moth damage and darning mushrooms. Brienne goes back to the store to serve customers, Jaime eats a plate of cookies and promptly falls asleep on the sofa.

***

Brienne lives in the rooms above the shop. The bedroom window looks out to the backyard, with tree branches knocking against the glass in the wind. She wakes up early morning, lights the fire to the tile stove in the corner of the room and comes back to the bed to snuggle.

Jaime spends his days with his laptop in the knitting store, doing online classes. On the second day of his visit, he buys himself a tarth gansey, which wins him the favour of Ari, who cranks out ganseys with an ancient cast-iron knitting machine in another little room connected to the shop. The gansey is warm and soft, and it makes Jaime look like he belongs to the shop. Sometimes the customers mistake him for an employee. He flirts with them and manages to sell quite many pairs of woolly socks, gloves and even occasional gansey to the tourists, and some yarn to locals if they know what they want to buy.

“You are the worst,” Brienne scolds him when he warms his cold hands under her shirts and steals a kiss from her. “Endrew gave me three days off,” she tells him between the kisses and he lifts her to air to swirl her around.

"Am I really the worst?" he asks Brienne later, in their bed. "What," she knits her brows together, "who told you that? You're not the worst, Jaime. You are actually pretty good."

He tickles her until she shrieks with laughter. "You'll have to pay for this tomorrow," she tells him fondly before they fall asleep. He doesn't know how he will be punished, but he knows it will be good. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it will be bad, Jaime. You have no clue what waits you.


	5. The Selkie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Originally I called this chapter "The sea and the smut", so... that's pretty much it.

The Selkie

The sea is fucking cold. There are piles of ice on the beach and not far at the distance seals are laying on the sand, big and round and fat and not bothered with the cold at all.

“Come on, Jaime,” Brienne calls him, kicks away her flip-flops and takes off her sweats and gansey. “You'll feel fantastic afterwards, I promise,” she calls and runs to the icy water.

_Fucking no_ , Jaime grumbles but he pulls off his clothes and adds them to the pile. Brienne is already in the water, waist-deep, her pale skin glowing in the weak winter sun.

Jaime did not want to see her in her swimwear like this.

The icy cold water hits his feet like a freight train.

“Don't stop moving!” Brienne's head shouts from the waves. She looks like one of the seals, only eyes and nose above the water. 

“What happens if I stop moving?” Jaime shouts back and wades on into the water. He can't feel his toes. 

“You'll chicken out and you won't get your reward.” Brienne starts swimming.

Jaime's balls hit the water.

The water is cold.

So fucking cold.

The air is even colder. “It's just -10C” Brienne had said. “It's so much colder in Winterfell,” she had laughed and pulled on her swimsuit. But at Winterfell, they are bundled in layers and layers of wool and expensive windproof down coats, not half-naked in the sea.

Jaime is halfway in the water when he realises that it's less cold in the water than in the air, and he drops himself in.

It's so fucking cold. He shouts and somewhere away Brienne is laughing at him. Seagulls are laughing at him. The seals are probably laughing at him too, chubby bastards they are in their shiny grey coats.

Surprisingly, Jaime doesn't die. The blood is rushing through his veins and it starts to feel pretty great actually, so he swims a very short lap.

As soon as Brienne leaves the water Jaime follows her. The air is cold outside the water, but Jaime doesn't feel it like when he first undressed. All the blood inside his body is rushing in turbo speed and he doesn't feel cold at all. He's never felt so alive, energized. _Fuck, I did it_ , he wants to shout, but he just takes a towel from Brienne who is smiling brightly.

“I feel so good,” she gushes, and then she laughs. Just pure joy pooling out of her mouth. Her laugh is glorious, it fills the space between the ice and frozen sand and makes Jaime laugh too.

They dry themselves off with the towels, smiling goofily. Brienne pulls her gansey back over her head but doesn't bother with her pants. 

When they walk back to the cottage, Jaime walks behind her and stares at her thighs. There are freckles at the back of her butt.

“Did you say I get a reward?” he asks her, but she laughs and runs inside where it's warm.

***

When they get inside, he gets his reward. Brienne sinks down between his thighs, pulls off his swim trunks and takes him into her warm mouth. She's done it before, but always in the dark. Now her blue eyes look up to him and Jaime knows that he is gone, lost, drowned into the deep blue sea of her eyes and suddenly his heart can't take more. He pulls her up to his arms again, peels away her grey sweater, her swimsuit, lays her naked on the bed and sinks his cock into her hot cunt.

“Fuck,” he curses when she moans. Her wails are like a song to his ears, their bodies dancing to the music of their desire.

Brienne's hands wrap around him, to hold him, _Jaime_ , she calls him, _Jaime_. He holds her hips in her hands and fucks her, slow and languid. He licks the sea from her skin, tastes the salt on her nipples.

“Brienne,” he begs her. “Be on top,” and she laughs, she is happy and Jaime is unravelling when she pushes him under her and sinks down on his cock again.

“I'm yours,” he wants to tell her, “take me, I'll always be yours.” She moves above him, her hips dancing, seeking her pleasure. She is strong and beautiful, and magnificent. _Jaime_ , she wails again and he pounds into her until her eyes close and her cunt flutters around his cock. Her orgasm rocks her and her face twists, but Jaime knows he can give her more.

“Come here, my sweet girl, “ he calls her, lays her to the bed again, lifts her long legs up to his shoulders and puts her mouth to her. His thumb finds her clit, and he presses it, rubs it just the way she likes it and guides her through another song.

When her breath slows, Jaime pets her face and kisses her gently until her eyes open up again. He is fucked, so fucked. When did this girl steal my heart, he tries to think but he can't remember. 

“Can I come into your cunt?” he asks and Brienne blushes. How is she real? 

“Come here, Jaime,” she pulls him to her arms again.

_Brienne, Brienne, Brienne,_ Jaime cants with every time he sinks into her warmth, and when it all washes over him, she holds him, kisses him and doesn't let go.

***

“I can't believe you made me do winter swimming,” he grumbles later and makes Brienne laugh again. The pile of clothes on the floor look like the skin of some animal who has deserted it there. Probably to seduce a dumb mainland boy, to lure him into icy water and fuck out his brain in her lair later.

Brienne rises from the bed, naked and glorious, and puts more wood in the stove.

Somehow Jaime knows it will be spring soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The eagle-eyed readers might have spotted that I un-capped the chapter count because this fic keeps growing like a sourdough starter during the lockdown. No plot has appeared still. So it's very likely that there will be more of this.


	6. The Bear and the Maiden Fair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's all fun and games until someone brings a tongue to a knife fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so if you don't mind spoilers and want to see what are the objects that Bree and Jaime see at the museum head to the end notes.

**The Bear and the Maiden Fair**

**or**

**It's all fun and games until someone brings a tongue to a knife fight**

The winter sun is exceptionally bright one morning when Goodwin pops by at the shop and demands to borrow Brienne from Endrew.

“I'm not an umbrella, Uncle,” Brienne grumbles but is secretly pleased. Goodwin, who is a curator at the Tarth Museum needs help with measuring and photographing some objects in the collections. Brienne can't wait to get her greedy paws on the ancient objects, whether they are faded and delicate books or sturdy pieces of farm tools.

Apparently, it's a pile of armour this time which is quite exciting. Brienne spent a week last summer measuring and photographing various socks or rather remains of the socks since most of them were more holes than socks. Endrew, who was also there, was very excited about them, but Brienne found the sock remains rather dull and slightly gross. Pieces of armour sound infinitely better than the constant smell of naphthalene.

“You'll get a good deal with Brienne,” Endrew --who apparently gets to decide what work Brienne spends her mid-year holiday doing -- has a glint in his eyes when he pours tea to the cups. They are all sitting in the club room of the yarn store. Jaime is sitting on the sofa, hopefully typing out the essay he needs to submit by the midnight. Brienne knows that he pretends not to listen, but his typing has slowed down considerably. “You'll pay for one helper but get one-and-half instead.”

“Oi!” shouts Jaime from his laptop, all pretence of working gone now. “I sold two ganseys yesterday. Mind who you call a halfling.” Endrew smiles and passes him a teacup with a cookie on the saucer. “What I'm saying is that neither of them is in their full capacity when they are in the same room together.”

“Uncle!” Brienne protests, and would smack him but he puts a teacup to her hand and continues.

“Well, I don't know about him,” -- Endrew nods towards Jaime -- “but at least Brienne's brain goes down to 75% capacity every time that boy looks at her.” Goodwin and Endrew find this very funny, and even Jaime smirks at Brienne while her uncles have a good laugh at her expense.

Brienne hides her annoyment behind her teacup. It's true that she gets a little distracted when Jaime flirts with her, but she told him off right at the beginning of his stay and now he really tries to not to distract her too much when they are in the shop. Outside the shop, the gloves come off instantly.

“I could use two pairs of hands,” Goodwin tilts his head. “I really need these things catalogued before the end of the week.”

He puts down his teacup and looks at Jaime who is eyeing him back with a nervous expression. He doesn't like to be left behind, Brienne has learnt already at Vale. Goodwin seems to come to decision and shifts his eyes to Brienne. “You can both come and help me but I'm kicking him out if you two start snogging in the collections.” Brienne feels herself blushing and hears Endrew sniggering nearby.

“Make sure to show him the Bear and the maiden Fair!” shouts Endrew at Goodwin when he is leaving the store later. Brienne groans. It's going to be a long week.

***

“The Keep is my favourite place in the world,” Brienne explains to Jaime when they are walking towards the castle next morning. Her nose is adorably red from the cold and this morning doesn't seem as dark as usual. Maybe the long winter is finally receding, he hopes.

“When mum and Gal died, dad had it pretty rough for a while, and I probably spent more time with Endrew and Goodwin here at the museum than at home with dad.” They walk over the drawbridge into the castle and Brienne leads them through a small side door to the Keep. The collections are hosted in the basements of the Keep, in a cramped room full of moving shelves and piles of archiving boxes hiding treasures.

Goodwin sets them up to two tables. Jaime and Brienne need to unpack several large chests that the curator has found from somewhere, all bursting of random bits and pieces of armour. The objects in the chests are luckily already categorised by some ancient curator, so Jaime and Brienne need to unpack the chests one by one, measure and photograph every object they find and pack them back nicely. Jaime claims the photography station and Brienne starts unpacking the first chest.

It's actually rather dull. Jaime has played around with old things before as the Rock is full of them, and the whole suits of armours are much more interesting than a table full of mismatched pauldrons and vambraces. Whatever the latter is. Goodwin first hovers nearby to see that he photographs everything in every possible side and that Brienne gets the measurements right but then retreats to a little room connected to this one and starts typing at the computer.

Brienne is very efficient like always and together they manage to finish the first chest by the afternoon of their first day. Goodwin comes back, makes them reshoot some objects and helps to pack everything back to the chest properly.

“Well done, kids. You can unpack this chest next,” he instructs them and goes back to his cubby hole. Brienne and Jaime start to unpack the second chest.

It only gets exciting when Jaime finds a canvas bag containing something made out of chainmail. It takes him a while to understand what is it that he is laying on the table, but when he does he snorts out a laugh and sneaks a peek to Brienne who is trying to match the items they have unpacked to the list that Goodwin has printed them.

“Brienne, sweetling,” Jaime asks her very loudly. “Are these by any chance your panties?”

Brienne turns to him and turns positively puce on her face.

“What?” she squeaks but bursts out laughing when Jaime shows her the object on the desk. Because Jaime has just found something that can only be described as chainmail knickers.

“Oh my god,” Brienne laughs and comes to poke the offending thing with her gloved finger. “You really found chainmail panties...” It's too fucking funny, but Brienne's laugh sounds like a donkey dying which makes it even funnier. It's almost too hysterical, and they both cling to each other laughing while trying to speak and not succeeding.

“What about the pubes,” Jaime wheezes, “aren't they going to...” he tries to draw breath, “when you take them off...”

“Jaime,” Brienne is laughing so much that her eyes start to water, “you were them over your clothes, not under.”

They make enough of a racket as Goodwin comes over from his computer.

“Ah,” he peers at the knickers with an amused expression, “you found the knightly knickers. They are surely worn over clothes, otherwise... Delicate things could get pinched.”

Brienne, who has calmed down enough to wipe her eyes asks, “Uncle, what are they really called?”

“Jousting jorts,” smirks Goodwin, and Brienne laughs so much she collapses on the floor.

***

After the knightly knickers are on the table, both Brienne and Jaime are in no condition to handle any delicate objects and Goodwin sends them upstairs to tour the museum.

“Remember to show him the Bear and the Maiden Fair,” he shouts after them.

Whatever Bear and the Maiden Fair is, Brienne doesn't say and only takes him to it at the end of their tour. “It's not a big deal,” she tries to play it off, but the red on her cheeks tell Jaime that whatever it is, it's embarrassing. He can't wait for it.

Brienne ends the tour in the hallway nearby the armoury. She leads him towards a little cloth mounted to the wall, covered by a glass. “The Bear and the Maiden Fair, a fragment of a tapestry” reads the ancient-looking brass sign on the wall. Jaime takes a good look at the tapestry.

There are two knights swordfighting on the picture, except one of them has dropped their sword and has bowed over to the other knights middle.

“Is he pearl diving?” Jaime exclaims and looks at Brienne who has again gone to a lovely shade of red. Brienne has always been so adorably awkward about sex talk.

This is wonderful and Jaime is going to milk it as much as he can.

“Why is the tapestry called The Bear and the Maiden Fair, Brienne?” Jaime asks her with an innocent voice. She rolls her pretty eyes.

“Because of the song, Jaime.”

“But I don't know the song, Brienne. Could you please sing it to me?”

“You know the song, Lannister. Everyone knows the song.” Of course, he knows the song.

“Oh, right.” They stare at each other. Brienne is still very red. Jaime pursues.

“But I still don't understand, Brienne. Please explain to me how the song is related to this tapestry.”

She groans. He cocks his head.

“Because the song is about cunnilingus.” She says the word like she has never said it before. Jaime steps closer to her. Brienne shivers.

“She kicked and wailed, the maid so fair, but he licked the honey from her hair” Jaime sings to her until she starts to laugh again. Laughing Brienne is better than annoyed and huffing Brienne, but only slightly. He pulls her to his arms and gives her a very dirty kiss.

“You'll get a lord's kiss later,” he whispers to her ear.

When they get home later, they are barely through the door before Jaime has pushed Brienne's pants down to her knees and his tongue to Brienne's cunt. He does make her kick and wail, his fair maid.

***

“I would totally look hot in those chainmail knickers,” he tells her later and makes Brienne laugh so hard that she falls off the bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [The chaimail knickers](https://twitter.com/Royal_Armouries/status/1286588631373750273) are a real thing. Most of the jokes related to that were pilfered from Discord and Twitter. 
> 
> [The tapestry](https://tall-wolf-of-tarth.tumblr.com/post/629869373057810432/ginmo-tall-wolf-of-tarth-archetteetc) \- the picture isn't really a tapestry, it's clearly a drawing but who cares.


	7. The Midwinter party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the Citadel announces Midwinter, the Tarths will have a party.

The Midwinter party

“Dad asked us to come over,” Brienne tells Jaime while they are cooking dinner at their kitchen above The Black Sheep. “On Saturday,” she stares at the carrots she dices and adds, “it's a Midwinter party. Dad's girlfriend is hosting.”

Earlier that day Citadel had announced Midwinter -- Endrew had opened a champagne bottle and served everyone in the shop -- and now all Westeros is preparing for celebrations at the weekend.

Jaime's mind starts to race, counting hours to Saturday and thinking of travel times to Casterly. Brienne must have noticed him panicking because she hastily adds “but you don't have to come, of course. If you don't want to.”

“Of course I want to come, Brienne,” he turns away from the fish he is trying to cut and pecks her on the cheek. “It's just I didn't bring a suit.” She looks relieved.

“Jaime, no one wears a suit here, not at family dinners at least. Just wear whatever.”

Lannisters never wear whatever, so Jaime goes to the department store and buys himself a new collared shirt, a tie and slacks. Jaime has never had a first-time meeting with a girlfriends dad before as he knew Melara's family ever since he was a kid, and the others, well, he never dated anyone else long enough to meet any dads.

Jaime knows that first impressions are important, and he wants Brienne's dad like him. Endrew and Goodwin, who are kind of dad-figures to Brienne tolerate him well enough, but Jaime knows that Brienne cares a lot about Selwyn, so even if he can't go full Lannister, he can at least try. On Saturday afternoon he puts on his new clothes and ties a perfect Citadel knot to his tie.

The slacks and tie seem to be a good choice as Brienne comes out of the bedroom wearing a dress. It's a second time Jaime has seen her wearing one before, and this one is infinitely better than the pink monstrosity she wore at Harrenhal. The one she is wearing now suits her well enough, perhaps because it's rather simple. Just a simple wool dress tailored to her, paired with an amber bead necklace and black tights that make her long legs look gorgeous.

Brienne bites her lip like she does when she is nervous, so Jaime goes to her and kisses her until she smiles again. He lets his hands roam across her body, mapping out familiar places that are now covered in the unfamiliar garment. He dares not to go where the dress ends, to touch the black tights and run his hand up them to see where they end as there is no time for that at the moment, so he stores the idea away for later. Instead, he packs up a canvas bag with the bottles he picked up from the liquor store earlier while Brienne ties the laces of her boots.

Cersei would never wear boots with a dress but Brienne looks cute in them, with white wool sock tops peeking out from the boots. They both bundle up in coats and assortment of scarves, gloves and hats to shield them from cold and leave the apartment.

***

Brienne's father lives up the hill in one of the big villas that look like a row of marshmallows in their pale pink and yellow paints, overlooking the town and the castle. Endrew, who has joined them with his boyfriend Donal, comes to Brienne when they are walking up the hill.

“Do you know her? The current one?” Brienne wrinkles her nose adorably. “Who _is_ the current one?”

Endrew picks up his phone to consult. “Corenna Storm.”

“Oh,” frowns Brienne. “I _do_ know her.”

“Don't tell me you were in the school with her,” laughs Brienne's uncle.

“Who are they talking about?” Jaime is forced to ask Donal who is walking next to him.

“Selwyn's girlfriend. He changes them every year” the dark-haired burly man explains with an eye-roll worthy of Tarths. Donal, who is an engineer at some steel factory lives at Storm's End.

“You _were_ in school with her,” laughs Endrew with a glee in his voice and turns around. “Hear that, Donal? Brienne went to school with Selwyn's current girlfriend.”

“Not in the same class, at least,” Brienne protests and doesn't seem to find the situation funny. “She was a couple of grades higher. Her little brother was in my class though.”

“Endrew and Goodwin have a bet going on,” tells Donal to Jaime. “They've bet on the year when Selwyn will finally have a girlfriend younger than Brienne.”

“That's terrible, Uncle,” Brienne scolds Endrew and takes Jaime's hand again.

***

When they finally reach the row of villas and let themselves into Selwyn's house -- apparently Tarths don't knock -- Selwyn comes to greet them at the hall. He is a tall burly man with the same blue eyes and friendly smile than Brienne and Endrew both have, but he seems to be much more restrained. Corenna appears tiny next to him, with her bottle-blonde hair and purple eyes (contacts, Brienne later whispers to him, she didn't have purple eyes at school). Everyone is very happy to see each other.

There is a lot of hugging between all the Tarths but Jaime gets a very firm handshake from Selwyn, which is a relief to Jaime who is not used to all that hugging. Most awkward hug seems to be between Brienne and Corenna, the latter which seems to be much more enthusiastic about it than the former and Brienne needs to bend down to let the small woman hug her.

“Brienne, dearest, I was so sorry to hear about that incident.” Corenna still holds Brienne's arms and doesn't seem to notice how Brienne's tall frame goes all stiff. “It was all over the newspapers, it must have been so horrid.” Something lurches in Jaime's belly and he goes and puts his arm around Brienne's shoulders and pulls her away from the nosy woman.

“Come on, babe,” he kisses Brienne on her cheek. “Show me the room where you grew up, I bet it's full of embarrassing posters and plushies.”

If there were any embarrassing posters, they are now removed but there is a pile of plushies on Brienne's old bed. Jaime is just thinking about pushing Brienne down to it so he can make her giggle when Endrew calls from downstairs.

“Oi, no snogging upstairs! Come down and have champagne with us!”

They run downstairs like a pair of unruly children and find the adults in the hall distributing the champagne glasses. Selwyn makes a toast to the upcoming spring, they all cheer, drink and immediately start talking over each other. Goodwin and Endrew seem to bicker about the origins of the cunnilingus tapestry -- it's a wedding gift, Endrew seems to think -- while Jaime listens half-heartedly until Corenna claims Brienne again. Jaime is worried first, but the girls seem to talk about Corenna's friends and their babies, so when Selwyn comes to Jaime he is not worried to leave Brienne.

Jaime immediately prepares for the upcoming interview but Selwyn seems to be pleasant enough. He asks about Jaime's time spent on the island, about his studies and his plans after his graduation, but not in a judgemental way Jaime's father usually conducts these kinds of discussions. When Jaime admits he isn't' still sure what to do after graduating, Selwyn just nods. “There is plenty of time, you are still young.”

Soon enough Corenna leads everyone into the dining room, where the dinner table is set. The table cloths are cheerfully patterned, the flower arrangements are not elaborate exotic flowers but done from evergreens, apples and berries and everything seems to be fairly relaxed but tasteful in the way that only Stormlanders know how to do.

While everyone is finding their seats -- Jaime finds him sitting between Brienne and Goodwin -- Corenna comes in with a platter full of shot-glasses filled with amber liquid. Selwyn, Goodwin and Donal get each four glasses and Endrew gets three in front of their plates.

“How many winters have you seen, Jaime?” Selwyn asks him when Corenna reaches him.

“I was born in spring, so this is my second,” Jaime tells and Corenna places two glasses in front of him, two for Brienne and three for herself.

“You get one glass for each long winter you've lived through” Brienne explains to Jaime. Corenna goes away for a moment and comes back with two flower crowns, which Jaime and Brienne as the youngest have to wear.

Selwyn in the meanwhile has refilled everyone's champagne glasses. “To Brienne and Jaime, our summer children,” they toast with champagne again.

“Now, Brienne,” Goodwin says with an amused expression when they have all sat down to the table. “You are the youngest, so you know what you will have to do now?”

“Oh no, Uncle, I can't,” Brienne hides her face to her hands. “Please don't make me.”

“What is she supposed to do?” Jaime asks.

“Sing!” shouts Corenna from across the table. “She needs to sing a song!”

“Please don't make me,” Brienne begs. “I'll do the next one, but not the first.”

“You do it then, Jaime, Brienne can be the second,” Endrew suggests.

“Alright,” Jaime agrees. “I can sing a song.”

He gets instructions -- he needs to stand up, hold the shot glass with the drink and sing a song, preferably something traditional.

“Nothing bawdy,” frowns Brienne even before Jaime can even open his mouth to suggest the Bear and Maiden Fair.

“Bawdy songs come later,” tells Endrew, so Jaime shuffles through the few songs he knows in his head. “Do you know Seasons of Love?” suggests someone from the table and of course Jaime knows that.

 _I loved a maid as fair as summer with sunlight in her hair,_ he starts and when he sings, he looks at Brienne who looks up to him with her ocean blue eyes. The song goes pretty well, and after the first few verses luckily others join in and when it's finished they all empty the glasses in their hands and cheer at Jaime. The amber liquid in the glass is some sort of honey-wine, rather strong but delicious. It tastes even better from Brienne's lips when Jaime steals a kiss after sitting down.

Brienne gets a small breather while they all eat the starters. Jaime can see how nervous she is, poking her food around the plate, but when the plates are cleared she resolutely stands up to do her duty.

When she starts, she looks out of the large window with the coloured panes glimmering in the sunset. She sings a lovely rendition of Jenny of Oldstones, and although her voice is weak in the places -- from her nerves -- she doesn't need any help from others from the table to remember the words.

When the song ends, several men at the table need to wipe their eyes before the glasses are emptied and everyone cheers again. Jaime drinks his and when Brienne has put her glass down on the table he pulls her to a hug. “You sing well,” he murmurs to her neck before kissing her.

“Oi, no snogging at the table!” yells someone at them.

More food appears at the table and the party gets properly going. Corenna sings next -- _The queen took off her Sandal --_ then Endrew sings _Six Maids in a Pool_ , and so on. Everyone sings in their turn until all the shot glasses have been emptied. The only one who seems to be really bad at singing is Donal Noye who goes with _The Bear and the Maiden Fair_ , so after the first verse, everyone -- even Brienne-- joins in to help him. Glasses get refilled, the expensive wine that Jaime brought gets drunk with enthusiasm and a lot of food and alcohol is consumed.

***

When they walk back home, it's almost morning. Jaime is wearing his flower crown over his hat, Brienne has given hers to Endrew and all around them on the streets, other revellers are returning to their homes, full of cheer and happiness about the upcoming spring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So in my head, Stormlands and especially Tarth is fairly Scandinavian.
> 
> Related to that, I first thought that Corenna is this gold-digger type but when I started to write her, I actually realised that I quite like her. She is based on every Swedish lady I've ever met, who are always very well-put-together, and they throw damn good parties that are both elegant and super relaxed. She definitely is trying to bag the Bachelor of Tarth, but not in a gold-digger way. She just wants to have a nice tall husband with a good job and a nice house. 
> 
> Sorry, Corenna, it probably won't happen :(


	8. Farewell Tarth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Farewell Tarth

They stand at the pier by the ticket booth. Jaime has wrapped his hands around Brienne so tightly that she thinks that they will mould to one person soon, which would be good because then he couldn’t leave her. Brienne pushes her face deeper into Jaime's neck and tries to calm her breath. Jaime sways them a little as if they are dancing and not saying goodby at the ferry terminal.

“Have you got your ticket?” she asks him but her voice comes out all watery.

“I have my ticket, Brienne, and ginger tablets.” Jaime sounds affected too. He pulls back a little, unwraps himself from her and puts his hands to her face to lift and kiss it.

That turns into a series of kisses until they both get overwhelmed again and she leans her forehead against his.

“It's only a few days, ok?” Jaime wraps his hands around her again.

“Ok,” Brienne nods and tries very much not to cry.

“I love you,” Jaime says, and it still feels new. He said it the first time a few days ago when they were hiking to see the half-frozen waterfall.

The air had been mellow, and the sunlight felt warm against Brienne’s skin even though the snow was still covering the ground around them. _I love you_ , Jaime had said, and then they had stood there on the footpath just holding each other until the cold sneaked into their toes and forced them to return to the real world.

“I love you too, Jaime,” Brienne tells him now and resolutely untangles herself from him. “Now go, before the ferry leaves.”

“I'll text you, alright?” he leans in for one more long kiss, picks up his bag from the ground and leaves.

***

The first text arrives before Brienne has reached the yarn shop. Jaime sends a selfie from the perfumery shop, a shelf full of toys and board games behind him. He continues texting her through the day as his journey progresses. A coffee cup and a book laid out on the rickety table at the train, then another pic from King's Landings Central and then he livetexts his bus ride to Ashemark. The last text comes at the end of his journey, from the family home of his friend Addam.

“Me and my future flatmate” the text arrives first and then a selfie with Jaime and Addam comes to Brienne's phone. Jaime looks just as he did this morning, wearing the same clothes and his hair familiarly askew. Both boys look happy, arms around each other.

Why is it so hard to be left behind, Brienne wonders as she walks across her empty room. The one who leaves has the journey to keep them too busy and no time to be sad. Brienne, left behind, is alone in the place where for weeks there was hardly any room for two.

“Say hi to Addam from me. Miss you,” Brienne texts back and crawls to her bed to sulk. The bed is cold and empty, and the room is chilly but Brienne doesn't go to light the fire to the stove. Instead, she burrows under the blankets and hugs a pillow that still smells like Jaime.

The phone call comes a little later. Jaime's face fills her screen.

“Put your camera on, babe, I want to see you,” he orders her, so she does. Jaime, hair wet and wearing a ratty t-shirt, lies on an unfamiliar bed. There are plushies next to his pillow and it all looks very domestic.

“Hey,” Jaime greets Brienne when she has turned on her own camera. His eyes scan the phone in front of him. “Babe,” he says anxiously, “no crying, alright?”

Brienne gives him a watery nod. “I just miss you,” she manages to say and she draws breath to calm herself. “How was your journey?”

“It was fine. The sea was calm,” Jaime shrugs. “Look, I found new friends,” he moves the camera a little and shows her the toys next to him.

There's a teddy bear in a pink dress and a plush lion. Both have tags attached to their ears.

“It's Bear-ienne,” she hears Jaime laughing off-camera. “She is wearing your dress.”

Brienne had binned her pink dress after that horrid party at Harrenhal. Admittedly the plushie bear looks very cute in her pink dress and Brienne feels a smile forming at her face.

“And this,” Jaime's hand lifts the other toy nearer to the camera. “This is Jaime Lionster. Say hello.”

The little lion is wearing a soft pink sweater. It doesn't look exactly like the one that Jaime wore on the day they both met at the Uni, but it is close enough. Jaime makes the little toy to wave its paw.

“Hello, Jaime Lionster,” Brienne laughs.

“Jaime Lionster here is _your_ new flatmate.” Jaime is back on camera, toys discarded to the side. “He is going to watch over you when you are alone in your stupid dorm room.”

Brienne had not given in to Jaime's insisting that she should move in with Jaime and Addam. They both need to concentrate on studying, especially Jaime who is trying to graduate.

“When are you going to the campus?” she asks him softly.

“Addam will drive me to pick up my things from Casterly tomorrow and the day after that we'll drive to the North. And you? Did you ask Renly for a ride?”

Brienne shakes her head.

“Donal promised to drive me. We'll be there on Saturday afternoon.”

“Not long then.”

Brienne doesn't know whether to shake her head or nod so she does both and feels stupid. Jaime smiles at her, one of his goofy smiles that Brienne only saw the first time at Tarth.

“Hey,” he says quietly, “good night, Brienne.”

“Good night, Jaime.”

Neither of them ends the call yet.

“Sweet dreams, sweet girl,” he smiles more wickedly this time. “As long as you dream of me.”

Brienne rolls her eyes but knows what will be thinking about before falling asleep.

“Bye,” she waves a little to her phone and ends the call when he waves back.

Only a few minutes later she gets another text from him. A selfie, him in the bed, this time without his shirt on. Jaime's hand is pushed halfway under the waistband of his pyjama pants.

“I'll be dreaming of you” reads the text.

Brienne sighs, full of needs she didn't have a few moments before.

When she finally sleeps she dreams of them together in the sunlight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at this 500-word oneshot passing 10k words now. How the hell did that happen?
> 
> Oh, and little plushies are inspired by lovely art by @knifeears. check out her [Bear-ienne](https://knifeears.tumblr.com/post/611841874043551744/can-you-show-us-more-bear-ienne-please-she-is) and [Jaime Lionster](https://knifeears.tumblr.com/post/630388304429318144/ellllllll-please-draw-bear-ienne-in-those-same)


End file.
